As a business owner, more often than not you may find yourself starting the day with a clear idea of what needs to be done, but by the afternoon, you realise that you’ve not completed the first item on the list yet. Usually, this is because of distracting emails or unscheduled meetings that see you spending your valuable time on other people’s needs instead of your own.

What can we all do to avoid this situation occurring and perform at our peak? I have nine ideas to offer today:

1. Don’t check emails first thing in the morning

Decision making is an energy consuming task, and emails generally overwhelm your brain with ideas in order to make quick decisions. Unless your job is literally checking emails all day, it would be wise to leave this until early afternoon once the daily priorities have been handled.

2. Prioritise the goals for the day first thing in the morning

As you will not be checking emails first thing, the best way to spend that first 20 minutes at your desk is to prioritise the goals for the day and determine how you will set about achieving them. Be clear about the most important things and to keep things simple, choose the three most important items that have to be completed.

"It is commonly said that the brain classifies everything as a ‘threat’ or a ‘reward’. People are generally more creative thinkers when they are staying positive."

3. Conserve your energy

For those tasks that are not part of your priorities, it is an essential skill to learn to say no to these, or better yet delegate them to the right staff. As a result, you won’t need to spend energy on tasks that could be done by someone else, or tasks that are not required at all in the larger scheme of things.

4. Assign a block of time each day for personal ‘thinking’ time

This is the time where you focus on deeply on your long terms goals and where your business is in terms of achieving these. It is essential that phones and emails are turned off during this time, so make sure you choose a block of time (it need only be 20 minutes) where it’s practical to remove these distractions.

5. Schedule meetings later in the day

As mentioned last week, the first thing you should try and do each day is to prioritise your short term goals. Meetings are usually energy intensive and require your full focus. It’s always better to get your ‘must do’ daily tasks out of the way before going into any meetings so you are going in with a fresh mind and a lesser workload on the way out of the meeting.

6. Plan a clear path for your meetings

Before the start of each meeting with your clients or staff, plan out the most effective way to get to the end, so that time is not wasted on meaningless conversations. Concise meetings also appear more professional and allow for quick resolution of any problems.

7. Reduce multitasking

Unless you are exceptionally talented at multitasking (tip: none of us actually are), try and focus on a single task at any given time. Excessive multitasking tends to cause distractions and could cause mistakes, which go unnoticed and also drain your energy. A good way to reduce this is to delegate appropriately and as much as possible.

8. Stay positive!

It is commonly said that the brain classifies everything as a ‘threat’ or a ‘reward’. People are generally more creative thinkers when they are staying positive. Teams tend to collaborate easily when everyone is positive and is working towards the same goal. Interpret threats and challenges as opportunities and you’ll find yourself achieving more than ever before.

9. Celebrate small victories

You may get find yourself rushing from one thing to the next, or solving a particularly tough problem and moving on to the next one without a break. In this process you may miss seeing the progress you are actually making. A sense of progress in fact is one of the most rewarding things you can have in your business. As with the previous point positive emotions have a contagious effect and can help to improve relations with your staff and clients.

Do you have a favourite tip so you can perform at your peak every day?